Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill describes herself as “the top Democrat in state government in New Hampshire,” but that didn’t stop the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office from hitting her with a fine and a cease-and-desist letter over her 2024 campaign filings.
The good news is she can use campaign funds to cover her $1,000 fine.
A letter from Senior Assistant Attorney General Brendan O’Donnell this week informed the Lebanon Democrat of the penalty for her campaign committee’s multiple 2024 violations. She was caught using thousands of dollars in donor funds for personal expenses, according to the letter.
“Expenditures for personal subsistence, such as clothing, home heating oil, groceries, and personal meals, are not proper expenditures,” O’Donnell wrote.
Liot Hill declined to respond to NHJournal on Friday when contacted for this story.
Whatever her ranking in the state party — real or imagined — O’Donnell made clear that she has an obligation as an elected official to follow the law. Noting that Liot Hill was a first-time candidate for statewide office in 2024, he wrote, “You chose to run for Executive Council and to accept more than $100,000 in campaign contributions.
“Those decisions created an obligation for you to familiarize yourself with campaign finance requirements, ensure that your personal and campaign accounts were kept separate, and ensure that no contributions were expended for personal subsistence.”
The letter ends the investigation that began after NHJournal broke the story of Liot Hill’s spending irregularities. After NHJournal began looking into her finances, Liot Hill filed amended reports to correct some of the spending. She also took the unusual step of removing her campaign treasurer, Corinne Morris, from the reports and listing herself as the campaign’s treasurer for the “corrected” filings.
But her amended reports raised more questions than they answered, setting off the investigation, according to O’Donnell’s letter.
Liot Hill told investigators the fixes were necessary, in part, because she occasionally mixed up her campaign credit card with her personal card at places like the grocery store, an urgent care clinic, or when paying for home heating oil.
The Democratic executive councilor also claimed she mistakenly believed she was allowed to use campaign donations to pay for expenses such as clothes, house cleaning, gifts for volunteers, and the cost of her car registration.
O’Donnell’s letter gives Liot Hill credit for cooperating with investigators and paying back expenses deemed improper. Under the terms of the letter, she is to cease and desist from any more campaign finance violations, and her campaign committee must pay a $1,000 civil fine.
Meanwhile, Liot Hill’s unconventional approach to campaign finance continues.
While the first-term councilor won’t face voters again until at least September 2026, her June 2025 campaign finance report claims she covered more than 9,670 miles on the campaign trail as of June 1. As a result, she paid herself $6,771.70 from her campaign fund to cover the costs.
In addition to the mileage, Liot Hill’s campaign filings include $2,518 for candidate travel. However, the report indicates that $2,462 of those “travel” expenses were actually three separate payments to Gills Point S Tire & Auto Service in West Lebanon.
But that’s not all for the District 2 road warrior.
Every executive councilor receives an annual mileage and expense stipend on top of their modest $18,000-a-year salary. Councilors from Districts 3, 4, and 5 get $7,980 per year. But because Districts 1 and 2 — Liot Hill’s — are so geographically large, they receive $11,970.
Adding six months of her Executive Council travel to her campaign filing, Liot Hill had already received more than $15,000 in travel reimbursements from donors and taxpayers as of June 1.
“My takeaway is that she’s a disaster,” one campaign veteran with direct knowledge of the state’s financial disclosure system told NHJournal on background.
“In theory, she was basically laundering money. She was using the campaign to pay for her basic living expenses and then spending her personal money on campaign stuff (totally believe that), then not reimbursing herself the full amount because it was offset by her accidental charges to the campaign?”
“It’s either entirely untrue or she has the personal finance skills of a 12-year-old,” the campaign professional added.
The Attorney General’s Office also levied fines against three GOP committees, all for missing filing dates:
- A $2,000 fine against House Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn);
- A $1,500 fine against the Committee to Elect House Republicans;
- A $500 fine against Granite Solutions, a Political Advocacy Organization organized by Rep. Joe Sweeney (R-Salem) to support the election of fiscal conservatives.
